Should second-hand smoke be illegal in a home with children?

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What do you think?

Well that's a tough one. I don't want the government interfering in peoples lives more than they already are and I don't want children to grow up I'm a home full of smoke. I know a married nurse couple with several kids. They both smoke in the house and the wife smoked when she was pregnant. I just don't understand how parents could do that to their babies, and these are nurses who have had a lot of education on the affects of second hand smoke. They are in no means ignorant, just extremely selfish and stupid. It disgusts me! I don't know what the solution should be but I wish something could be done to protect these kids. :mad:

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Specializes in LTC.

YES my parents smoked in my home, and without choice i had to go to school smelling like cigarettes, and people would tell me i smelled bad every day. I also developed chronic resp. problems because of them, and i also had to breathe the smoke in the car as well. i will NEVER forgive them for it. i used to cry and beg them to 'put it out' but they just yelled at me and kept smoking. Don't you think that they could have done a little time for treating a child so poorly over cigarette use? i think so.

How it should be enforced? just like child abuse is, because it IS child abuse. kid goes to school, smells like cigarettes, someone notifies child services. the child tells someone, anything. the punishment- the parents temporarily lose parental rights for neglecting the childs health and well being. as a personal sufferer of this abuse, i would have loved this law. THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A FORM OF CHILD ABUSE. i have so many resp. problems, who knows how early my life will be cut short because of them. :(

thanks for listening to my rant

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My dad smoked in the home as I was growing up. I had mild asthma and he would tell me it wasn't because he smoked. I would open the window in my room to air it out and get introuble when he found out it was open. I think he was in denial. My little brother is having the same issue. I asked him many times to stop and please smoke outside but he didn't. WHen I moved out I coughed and coughed and coughed for months. So no I think they should have to go outside. It isn't fair to expose the children to your habits that affect yoou body and could affect their's negativly. JMHO

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Specializes in ER, Prehospital, Flight.

YES my Komrades! These are obviously defective parents that deserve to have their children removed from the home, not only should this be illegal but it should carry a charge of attempted murder and viewed as a capital offense. The children will be greatful for being removed from the hostile environment and placed into a more loving and gentle government program where proper upbringing can be enforced.

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*snip*I am getting so tired of the bashing of smokers. I don't smoke, but my husband does. He doesn't smoke in the house or around our daughter but to hear a lot of you he should be classified a criminal simply because he enjoys smoking.

I'm not usually this vocal about something but I'm getting tired of the smoker-bashing.

I don't think anyone is purposely smoker bashing OR saying someone who smokes is a bad parent AT ALL. But if you subject your kid to second hand smoke, I DO see it as a crime. That's the same as leaving a beer can on the table knowing they're going to drink it.

I'm a smoker and I deal with all the new rules of not smoking here, and not smoking there. The hospital is now a no smoking zone. The entire property!!! You can not even smoke in the parking garage. I say GOOD! I hope they make smoking so inconvenient that more and more of us quit. I hope that the generations after us see us jumping through hoops, standing in the rain a block away, huddling in dirty patio "smoking areas" as ridiculous as it is! I hope they never pick up a cigarette because of it.

People that don't smoke have the right to not be exposed to it, and children should be protected. I live in Florida and I've heard my Pediatrician state that he would call social services if he found a parent smoking in enclosed spaces with children, and my OB would drop you from her service if she found out you smoked while pregnant. :up::up::up: That far outweighs my "right" to slowly kill myself. LOL

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I totally understand how you feel LPNWeezy (I've been called "weezy") too. I spent hours cooped up in my mom's '65 Falcon (very small no escape) to the point it makes me sick to even think of it. Then (and I figured this one out only after I started doing allergy testing myself) the doctor ordered allergy testing. The first tray of scratch tests was for foods. I really hated eggs, so I was hoping to show a positive on that one, but no dice. Drat.

My experience is that very few people overall had a lot of reaction to scratch tests for foods, react more to pollen, dander, housedust, insects etc. We would re-do them intradermally to make sure - but my mom figured since I didn't react to the foods there was no point to bringing me back for the rest of the series, which meant I spent the next 12 years of my life in a house full of animals, and slept on a feather pillow, in a smoky house. Yes, I am still kinda peeved about that. Also in those days they said kids brought it on themselves due to "stress" and since my dad had recently abandoned our family they figured that must be why I was doing this to my 6 year old self. I think I am more than a little peeved about that.

But after all is said and done - do I wish I had been taken away from my family at that time in my life? You have to think about things like that. I hate it that the choice would be asthma or a horrible experience like that - but I'd rather not lose my family over something I was too young to understand.

We have laws in place - they are not perfect by any means, but the route to go is CPS. The alternative is allowing law enforcement to have jurisdiction over our homes without good cause. A child could smell of smoke for a lot of reasons. Not trying to minimize your experience at all!! I don't want to get into an ever tighter system of surveillance by the government.

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Specializes in ER.
LaughingRN, you surely recognize that it is wrong when a parent actively does something that he or she knows is harmful to the child. And this is not a case of 'it might hurt the child,' as suggested by your lumping it with not breastfeeding or taking ambien. This is a level of active harm for which you have not provided a symmetric comparison, such as forcing a child to drink alcohol or running a meth lab in the living room.

Now, I wouldn't claim to have any expertise whatsoever in forming policy or policing such, but I took this to be an exercise in the formation of our ethical sense. You may wish to defer by playing the pragmatist, but question remains.

I absolutely think that this is an exercise in ethical sense. The question originally posed was :Should second-hand smoke be illegal in a home with children?

I imagine that the majority of homes with smokers, have children that will never experience "active" harm. The children don't have asthma and therefore are not in immediate crisis.

Now if the original question posed was: Should second-hand smoke in a home with an asthmatic child be considered child abuse? It may have received a different reply from me.

Now if we are going to impose a law on the general population, whether there is immediate harm or not, the I politely disagree that all my previous examples are not extremely relevant. I believe would could classify them as Child Endangerment, and we could make them all illegal.

Overfeeding a child with high blood pressure and diabetes is causing plenty of harm

A parent taking Ambien does not awake to remove children from a burning house, or call 911 when a home invasion occurs- children die

Sleeping with an infant-child suffocates and dies

Speeding in a vehicle - car crashes children die

Well we are on the topic of child endangerment, it would only make this law fair to remove all children from parents who are homeless. Single mother's and children represent the highest population here, so we have plenty of children to remove. After all, They can't possible be providing a safe environment when you compare "no home" to smoking in a home.

On the topic of breastfeeding, I threw that in because, I mean, where do we stop? What about immunizations? The possibilities become endless when you are discussing child endangerment.

The fact of encouraging CPS to become involved is bordering ridiculous. I encourage any one interested in a good book, to read Solomon's Sword by Michael Shapiro written in 2002. It is about the disintegration of the foster care system with cited modern cases of massive failure and short-comings. Absolutely heart wrenching.

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YES my Komrades! These are obviously defective parents that deserve to have their children removed from the home, not only should this be illegal but it should carry a charge of attempted murder and viewed as a capital offense. The children will be greatful for being removed from the hostile environment and placed into a more loving and gentle government program where proper upbringing can be enforced.

Really? attempted murder? I don't think so. I agree that you shouldn't smoke around your kids... or anyone else who doesn't smoke for that matter. This world is full of things that you shouldn't do (that could "potentially" cause harm to someone) Let's not forget that not every kid who grows up in a house full of smoke is going to have breathing problems...not every kid who lives with an obese parent is going to be fat... not every kid who has an alcoholic parent is going to be an alcoholic. You get my point? The likelihood of having breathing problems, being fat, or becoming an alcoholic doesn't go away if a child's parents are perfectly thin 120 lb nonsmoking, non drinking folks. Legislation to this effect is just another "pie in the sky" socialist ideal of eutopia for everyone.

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Specializes in CNA.

OMG! are you serious? The whole anti-smoking thing has gone far enough without someone planning to have parents arrested for freakin child abuse because they smoke in THEIR OWN HOME!!

You know what, when I was a kid, parents smoked in the home, car, bank, grocery store, hospital, any place. They also drank a beer or two while driving, never wore seat belts. Kids would stay out playing until 10 or 11 pm, kids never wore helmets riding their bikes and kids got hurt playing and it was just normal kids will be kids crap. Kids werent put on Ritalin or other drugs for hyperactivity or ADD, they were kids, they are suppose to have energy. Kids weren't on all the freakin asthma meds, your mom didn't run you to the doctor for every sneeze, cough or fever. Today's parents are whiney and paranoid of anything and everything and shelter their kids from way too much.

IF you think making laws about smoking is so freakin important, just go for broke and make cigs completely illegal. At least then we wouldnt have these whiney cry babies who complain that someone within 500 feet of them are smoking and causing their nose to tickle. Jeesh.

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Specializes in ER.
...Really? attempted murder?...

I believe that post was pure sarcasm with a twist of George Orwell ;)

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Specializes in ER, Prehospital, Flight.
Really? attempted murder? I don't think so. I agree that you shouldn't smoke around your kids... or anyone else who doesn't smoke for that matter. This world is full of things that you shouldn't do (that could "potentially" cause harm to someone) Let's not forget that not every kid who grows up in a house full of smoke is going to have breathing problems...not every kid who lives with an obese parent is going to be fat... not every kid who has an alcoholic parent is going to be an alcoholic. You get my point? The likelihood of having breathing problems, being fat, or becoming an alcoholic doesn't go away if a child's parents are perfectly thin 120 lb nonsmoking, non drinking folks. Legislation to this effect is just another "pie in the sky" socialist ideal of eutopia for everyone.

I though the "Komrade" part of my post may have tipped you off to my sarcasm........Or.... maybe we should have a Government team to go around and inspect all households to ensure the children are brought up in a way that complies with what has been decided as safe. I think I should lead this team as I am a nurse and I know best...............Please, Prior to my arrival, make sure that the household is smoke\alchohol free. Have all academic records along with the diet and excercise program your child is on. Make sure your child is within BMI standards also....Thank you! OK, really do we want to go there. Its a slippery slope. Personally, I think the child obesity problem is way worse right now and the parental example is likely a good start.

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I don't want government intrusion into the home any more than their already is. A parent who really loves their children or spouse will not smoke in the home. Period. I may get flamed for that statement but I firmly believe it to be the truth.

It's a proven fact that second hand smoke is damaging to others including the unborn. How you can claim to "love" someone and then physically hurt them is beyond me.

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